FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - No. 23 Florida Southern men's basketball fell to No. 2 Nova Southeastern 103-89 in the Sunshine State Conference Championship game inside Rick Case Arena Sunday afternoon.
"Disappointing loss, but I'm very proud of our team," said head coach
Mike Donnelly on today's championship game. "We battled hard for 40 minutes and put ourselves in position to pull off the upset, but credit to Nova Southeastern. They made a ton of winning plays at both ends of the floor down the stretch. They are a great team."
Jadin Booth led Florida Southern (25-8) with a game-high 29 points on 9-of-14 shooting which featured a 6-for-9 mark beyond the three-point arc and 5-for-6 from the free throw line.
Dominick Denny,
Peyton Gerald, and
Alex Steen all added double-digits while
Joe Moon IV finished a point shy. Denny was second on the team in scoring with 14, Gerald one off at 13, while Steen (11) and Moon (9) were the top five scorers. Steen finished one rebound shy of a double-double with a team-high nine boards as Denny added six boards and six assists to his stat line.
The Sharks (30-1) saw three players go for 20-plus-points with MJ Iraldi dropping 27. Dallas Graziani was second on the team with 23 points and 11 assists with Ryker Cisarik finishing with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Tyler Eberhart finished with 19 points to close the book on double-digit scorers.
Florida Southern had a hot start led by 22 points from Booth in the first 20 minutes. The Moccasins had a 12-point lead near the 8-minute media timeout, 36-24, but were unable to hold of a 12-0 run by the Sharks to tie the game with under four minutes to go in the first half. Buckets from beyond the arc, including one in the final two seconds, bumped NSU's lead to seven with a 52-45 deficit heading into halftime.
After initial shots traded in the opening minutes of the second half, Florida Southern went on a run to tie the game 61-61 at 14:03. Nova Southeastern maintained a slight lead for the next several minutes, though still within reach for the Moccasins, who were one point behind 69-68, at the midpoint of the second half. A one-point lead by NSU 71-70 with nine to go was the closest point of the game under 10 before the Sharks took over the second-half scoring. Foul trouble plagued the Mocs late, combined with turnovers and missed shots as Nova Southeastern held on to win 103-89 for the Sharks' fourth-consecutive conference tournament title.
"Despite today's setback, we are excited to hear our name called tonight," Donnelly continued. "We are having a selection party at my house, so we are looking forward to celebrating together the success we've had this season."
Jadin Booth and
Alex Steen were named to the six-player Sunshine State Conference All-Tournament team. The duo were voted on the team along with Nova Southeastern's MJ Iraldi (MVP), Dallas Graziani, and Ryker Cisarik while Lynn's Leo Beath was also selected.
The Moccasins will await Sunday's NCAA selection show for the seed in the upcoming NCAA DII South Regional, March 15-18. The selection show will air tonight on www.NCAA.com at 11 p.m.
